Album title: Air Conditioning
Artist: Curved Air
Nationality: English
Label: Warner Bros
Chronology: Debut
Grade: A
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: Seem to be one of the first prog bands to combine prog, classical, folk and electronic music. Also the first band anywhere to ever issue a picture disc, not that that’s particularly relevant of course.
Tracklisting: It Happened Today/Stretch/Screw/Blind Man/Vivaldi/Hide and Seek/Propositions/Rob One/Situations/Vivaldi (With Cannons)
Comments: I’m certainly intrigued right away by the title of the closing track! I once went to a classical concert where the finale was Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and they used a real cannon (well obviously not a real cannon, but it sounded and smoked like one - I don’t think anyone caught a cannonball in the head or anything) and I understood that. But Vivaldi? With cannons? I’ll be interested to see how that works out. Before that though we have a whole album to get through, so let’s kick things off, shall we?
Oddly enough - maybe because at the time of writing I had just watched a concert by them - the first thing I think of is Fleetwood Mac. That could be down too to the wailing guitar and the vocals of Sonja Kristina. The opener is a good uptempo song, though at this point I wouldn’t be ready to call it prog of any shape. Breaks into a really nice strings section about halfway, which changes the whole structure of the song. I must admit I don’t particularly like Kristina’s voice; it’s very warbly and sort of shivery, kind of gypsy-like? Hard to convey how it sounds to me, but at this moment it’s not for me. “Stretch” has a great violin intro from Darryl Way then hops into a three-chord boogie Status Quo would be proud of. “Screw” is a slow, lazy number which reminds me of summer and is the first time I really hear the keys of Francis Monkman; it’s also now the closest thing to a song that could be called prog on this album.
There’s a nice kind of staggered approach to “Blind Man”, and I much prefer Kristina’s more restrained vocal here. Well hell that’s interesting. “Vivaldi” is the same piece that Monkman (presumably) would bring to SKY ten years and more later, which would feature on their second album
SKY 2. Despite being written by Darryl Way (and quite rightly credited to him on the SKY album) it would be Monkman who would suggest it and it would appear in a much shortened version near the end of the album. It’s pretty epic and really shows Way’s expertise on the violin. “Hide and Seek” is a bit of a grungy rocker, Kristina back to that wailing vocal, not really all that fond of it. “Propositions” is basically a jam, and then “Rob One” rides on a nice sedate piano line from Monkman with attendant violin from Way, and “Situations” is a very low-key folky tune, while that “Vivaldi (With Cannons)” is, well, the track already featured but with what sounds like slide-whistles? Damn weird and I don’t see why they had to do this. Ends the album very oddly. Kind of takes away from the original track too. Boo.
Favourite track(s): It Happened Today (instrumental section only), Stretch, Blind Man, Vivaldi, Rob One
Least favourite track(s): Vivaldi (With Cannons)
Overall impression: Not at all bad, though still pretty much in the folk side of things I would think.
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